The Invincible George Clinton Funks Up The Forum

Londonist has spent the last few minutes reading a recent Guardian interview with George Clinton, the extraordinary leader of P-Funk collective Parliament Funkadelic. He was, he claims, born in an outdoor toilet in North Carolina, has spent a lot of time in London but can't remember a lot of it due to his prodigious acid intake, and can claim a career highlight having recorded with one of Right Said Fred.

Those facts should be enough to entice you to learn more about this 72-year-old funk survivor, but experiencing Clinton and his band of groovemasters live takes you to another dimension entirely. Happily for London a porthole opens into the wonderful world of Parliament Funkadelic at the Forum in Kentish Town this summer, 26 July.

George Clinton is one of the most influential singers, writers and performers of his generation, having had an impact on, and recorded with, an enormous number of funk, soul, hip hop and dance stars over a forty-year plus career. He is revered by the likes of Prince, De La Soul and Snoop Dogg in much the same way as James Brown and Sly Stone. He is one of the most sampled artists in the history of recorded music. The man is a legend of his genre, not that it's easy to file him away in any particular musical pigeonhole — P-Funk being a genre all by itself, created for and by George Clinton.

His most influential record is arguably Funkadelic's 1978 classic One Nation Under a Groove, the title track of which you can hear below.

The show at the Forum is certain to be a feast for all the senses, but it's important to note you'll need to be on your game for it — the show is described as a 'three hour-long intergalactic funk spectacular', and the curfew is 2am. It's a Saturday night though, and if Clinton can manage it in his 70s after the life he's led, we reckon you'll be all right... though reading that interview there's a fair chance he's actually immortal.

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic play the Kentish Town Forum on 26 July, and tickets are available via the Forum website.